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| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

October 2010

You are browsing the archive for October 2010.

The Carlyle Group is on a Tear

October 29, 2010

Yesterday the Carlyle Group bought Syniverse for $2.6B just days after buying CommScope for $3.9B.

Syniverse handles about 90% of the US cellular market, taking care of back office stuff like roaming, SMS, and MMS. All growth at Syniverse is global not national. CommScope is a wireless gear and fiber optics company.

The Cloud is For Agents, too

October 28, 2010

Khali Henderson of Phone+ and I are doing a webinar tomorrow for agents at TCA on The Cloud. One of the TCA Board Members, Emmet Tydings, President of AB&T Telecom, sent me this response:

"Voice is just another application in an IP world. Mobility is mandating a large portion of strategic service delivery changes within organizations.

M6 Migration

October 27, 2010

Apparently, this article produced a small bruha at Broadsoft Connections 2010 this week.  The service providers on M6 have a lot at stake - like all their customers. The M6 user group is a fairly vocal contigent as well.

It's a double-edged sword: M6 has features that BroadWorks does not and vice versa.

What I Learned From the Locknote

October 27, 2010

A keynote opens a conference and a Locknote closes a conference.

The Broadsoft Connections 2010 was opened by Wikinomics author Don Tapscott with his talk about the Digital Age. Our industry is aware that ubiquious broadband has changed the landscape of many businesses. The transparency that we have today (think blogs and WikiLeaks) means that nothing is really private.

This is paramount to me - obviously because I blog and occassionally get dirty looks for what I write -- but the Locknote was a panel of twitter experts - Tara Hunt, Joel Comm and Paul Chaney - being interviewed by Broadsoft CMO Leslie Ferry.

Add Some Skinny to Broadworks

October 26, 2010

Genband M6 platform is a softswitch that allows service providers to utilize Cisco IP phones running Skinny. The problem has been that Broadsoft, which bought Genband's M6 platform, has completed the process of adding the M6 feature set to the Broadworks platform. There are a bunch of M6 companies wondering what to do, because migrating customers from one platform to the new one (M6 to standard Broadworks) would be painful. (Thing re-configure every phone!)

Today, CommX merged with PressONE.

When the Cable Giants Wake

October 26, 2010

The MSO's will be coming strong into Hosted UC next year. Four of the top 5 MSO's will be rolling out Business Hosted UC services. By the time they come to market the current crop of ITSP (Hosted VoIP Providers) better have their marketshare shored up. The ITSP has to be really sticky to their clients.

Easylink Buys Fax2mail

October 26, 2010

Day 1 Observations from Phoenix

October 26, 2010

I'm at the Broadsoft Connections 2010 user conference in Phoenix. The theme is Ignite Passion (for Hosted UC). These are some of my notes:

Broadsoft is pushing not just Hosted PBX but services they are calling CAAS (Communications-as-a-Service).

The Pitfalls of Social CRM

October 21, 2010

A consultant sent me a link to look at a CRM solution. (I don't know why because she was researching blogging platforms when I spoke with her Tuesday). The site is intriguing and makes some big promises:

* Manage contacts and build relationships.
* Engage, import contacts on social networks.
* Track sales pipeline and view analytics.
* Organize projects, tasks, and events.
* Monitor customer & team activity in the stream.
* Google Apps Integration

First off, in my experience, you have to force people to use CRM. Unless you withhold pay, most salespeople will fight you on the use of CRM.







FCC Chair Makes Key Points

October 21, 2010

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke at the FCC Spectrum Summit making some key points, I think.

"We hold this summit at a critical time. Our economy is struggling. People are hurting.

Top 3 Ways Not To Interact with a Blogger

October 21, 2010

I get email from public relations firms all the time. Every time I think I'm off a list, I get added to a new one. I already get a steady stream of email from clients, vendors, peers and friends in the Industry. (Keep those tips coming!) Add in social media noise and most of my day is fielding news, questions, etc.

What's New to Sell?

October 18, 2010

Besides thinking Cloud, which is really just applications, there have been a few interesting product offerings from carriers. Here are some of them:

Both AboveNet and FiberLight have some new fiber miles to sell.

XO has almost 100 route miles of new metro fiber in Charlotte (with help from AGL and DukeNet).

Indirect versus Direct: the Financials

October 18, 2010

At Microcorp agent show today, one regional GM was explaining that the corporate mentality is that it is more expensive to sell via indirect than direct. I was flabbergasted.

The reasoning is that on year 2 and 3, when the carrier is still paying commission points, it is losing money. Really?

One: your customer acquisition cost and cost of sales for indirect is only paid if as sale is made.

Two: you pay salary, taxes, benefits, car allowance, cellular bill, office space, unemployment insurance, business liability insurance, and utilities for a direct sales force always!





Lots of Shorts

October 18, 2010

So HD Voice isn't quite taking off as expected.Sorry Doug. A lot more VoIP Peering required yet.

Shout out to

Big surprise as Windstream lays off 220 Iowa Telecom employees. It's called synergies of consolidation.

4 Opportunities for Agents

October 18, 2010

Microcorp is a master agent that I have dealt with since 2003. Their agent conference is this week. The focus is on Get Away from T1. Well, that's not the official theme, but that is the message.

Broadvox and Cypress: What Now?

October 17, 2010

Broadvox and Cypress acknowledged the merger rumors on Thursday, announcing that they were still working out the details of the merger. (TMC broke the story here). Both companies wanted to assure customers that it will be business as usual.

Executives told TMC that no product lines were in danger.

Cloud Opportunities for Agents

October 17, 2010

I was on a Cloud panel for Comdex Virtual for VAR's. (You can see that Nov. 16-17, 2010). And I am moderating Demystifying the Cloud for Agents at Microcorp One-on-One on Monday morning. Then I will be presenting Put Your Head in the Cloud: Opportunities for Agents with Khali Henderson for TCA on October 29th.

What Have I Been Saying?

October 17, 2010

Gary Kim writes, "A study of data submitted by 221 small U.S. telcos by Telergee Alliance confirmed trends you would expect: Broadband and wireless are growing, cable TV is flat, and voice is declining. As has been the case for several years, operating costs also are growing while profit margins are shrinking."

So if TelcoTV costs big money, but the market is flat, why spend the money?

Broadvox Inks Deal to Acquire Cypress

October 13, 2010

And so the VoIP Consolidation continues. (This is a good thing for two reasons: I need something to write about and this industry has too many players mucking about.)

Rumor has it that Broadvox has inked a deal to acquire Cypress Communications, a deal that they had been working on for months. No details have been released yet.

Broadsoft Acquires Casabi

October 13, 2010

I received a tip that Broadsoft was buying Casabi and a link to a PR website that had this to say:

"BroadSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: BSFT), the leading global provider of IP-based communications services to the telecommunications industry, today announced it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Campbell, California-based Casabi, Inc., a privately held provider of innovative, cloud-based personalized content and messaging applications."

"Casabi empowers cable, fixed-line and mobile telecommunications service providers to expand their consumer offerings to include fixed-line SMS, customized information services and tools that keep families organized. Through this hosted application, family members can send text message blasts to any phone number (fixed-line or mobile), access voicemail, make real-time updates to a family calendar, and share a network address book."  [I am waiting word back from Broadsoft.]

This clearly plays into the roadmap at Broadsoft of more MRC based offerings. This acquisition also assists Broadsoft customers in two ways: a tool for SMS messaging and a differentiator for service bundles.



Is the Time Up on Colo?

October 12, 2010

Last week we saw restated guidance from Equinix about revenue for the year. All the sector stocks tanked, even Savvis although it raised its revenue estimate for the year.

One thing that stock pickers don't understand is, um, the business that they trade in. Do any of them even talk to people in the sector?

Equinix is seeing a downgrade in revenue, because they cut off their Channel partners. When they bought Switch & Data, they sliced the indirect channel off.



Ignoring Reality

October 12, 2010

So the USTelecom Association had a webinar about Google Voice and its effect on the marketplace. They mentioned that Vocaltec, Vonage, ITXC and FWD hadn't done any damage, so don't worry. The presenter went on to say that Google is a struggling giant who is envious of Skype, Twitter, Facebook and Apple. And that Google Voice is no great threat to telecom.

Where Can You Find Me?

October 12, 2010

Last week was a whirlwind, Tampa to Los Angeles to Ontario ($125 cab ride???) to New Orleans to Orlando to Tampa. ITEXPO, StartupCamp and CVX Expo were great. Over 200 booths at the show. ITEXPO gave away a Mustang convertible and Nimsoft had a contest for a Tesla!

Bundling for Stickiness

October 12, 2010

I moderated the panel at ITEXPO about The Importance of Bundling for Stickiness with Cbeyond, Broadvox and Tele-Pacific. If a carrier has a bundle and it looks like every other bundle, it quickly becomes a commodity that is sold on price. Think Integrated T1 or Dynamic T1 or SIP Trunk.

New Edge Networks, an EarthLink company, has stretched beyond the MPLS over DSL model to include other access methods such as cable and EVDO.

Time For VoIP Consolidation

October 11, 2010

There are over a thousand VoIP Providers in North America. When you talk to many of the sales folks and executives, you can hear about the hyper-competitive marketplace and the lack of positioning. (Positioning is the unique value proposition of the service offering, something lacking from most providers).

As my readers know, Net-Head mentality would certainly solve some of this.

3 Ways VARs Can Profit From Cloud

October 11, 2010

I was speaking to an IT shop owner this morning who will be attending SMB Nation in Vegas in a couple of weeks. His worry is How Do I Make Money From The Cloud?

Agents have a similar worry. One reason agents worry is because selling Managed Services in Consultative Selling is very different than selling a PRI or T1.

ROA and Moore

October 11, 2010

A new metric for Wall Street is Return on Assets. A company spends money on infrastructure, equipment, etc. (Assets) to produce goods or deliver service. Recently, I have been reading where the return on assets is decreasing sharply (and has been for some time).

Wasted Ad Dollars

October 11, 2010

So we have television ads running constantly from auto insurance carriers. State Farm, GIECO and Progressive are running massive ad campaigns that I have seen on TV shows, the NFL, web, and direct mail.

It's basically become too annoying. How can they all be cheapest?

Net-Heads Versus Bell-Heads

October 6, 2010

So I gave my talk today about Net-Heads versus Bell-heads at CVX (Channel Vision Expo). There is a shift happening in the telecom world. Not only is the world of IT and the world of Telecom blending, but technology is becoming even more pervasive in the business world. More technology means more problems and much more support is needed.

This Week at ITEXPO

October 6, 2010

I have been busy at ITEXPO so have not blogged this week. There are lots of familiar faces that I only get to see at ITEXPO East and West.

There has been a lot of content at ITEXPO: at least 13 sessions going on at any given time. 4G, SmartGrid, ChannelVision Expo, MSP World, Social CRM, and more, including the usual ITEXPO tracks. A lot to take in.

What if HP Became an MVNO?

October 1, 2010

All the talk about the Android versus Apple platforms has been interesting, but it leaves out the Blackberry, which actually puts out some rugged, well-liked devices. And there is a sleeper in the corner. That sleeper is HP.

EarthLink Acquires Deltacom

October 1, 2010

I had to check the calendar to make certain it was October 1 and not April 1 when I read the headline that EarthLink bought Deltacom.

Deltacom has a lot of fiber in the Southeast - 35 metro rings and 16,400 total route miles of fiber across 14 states - that generates about $440M in annual revenue. That revenue comes from 32,000 SMB customers. EarthLink will combine this with its New Edge Networks subsidiary.

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